Hurricane Katrina 20th Anniversary

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane in Plaquemines Parish in southeast Louisiana. Shortly thereafter, it moved swiftly to the New Orleans area, causing devastating flooding due to the failure of the levee system. The hurricane took the lives of 1,836 people across Louisiana and Mississippi. Katrina was the deadliest hurricane to strike the U.S. mainland in the modern era and, according to many estimates, the most costliest one in U.S. history. Southeast Louisiana still has not fully recovered.

NECHAMA was founded in 1993 as a response to huge floods in Des Moines. By 2005, NECHAMA was a Midwest-focused disaster relief organization, often deploying to aid in flood and tornado recovery in Minnesota and the surrounding four states. Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath was a huge national story for months. Because of the huge need for assistance in the wake of Katrina, and NECHAMA’s demonstrated skill in flood cleanup, NECHAMA’s leadership saw an opportunity to help.

With the ability to marshal volunteers and trailers full of tools, they made the fateful decision to venture out of our regional zone for the first time. The team of volunteers headed down I-55 and spent much of 2006 and 2007 helping out in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. What started as an isolated deployment eventually led to the NECHAMA that we now know, the only national Jewish disaster response agency with subsequent deployments in 35 states, Puerto Rico, and counting.

Pictured: NECHAMA's response team and volunteers in the 9th ward.

As a sector, the disaster relief world learned much from Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Many disaster best practices were implemented across the U.S., including improvements to evacuation protocols, emergency planning before a disaster hits, and the creation of the National Response Framework to coordinate responses across government agencies and NGOs. With the continued high death toll that these mass floods cause, whether in Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, last year’s Hurricane Helene, or this year’s deadly floods in central Texas, the need for continued improvements remains top of mind.

This year, NECHAMA commemorates the somber 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina through our ongoing commitment to providing disaster relief to all Americans, particularly the most vulnerable: elderly, disabled, and/or economically disadvantaged victims of disaster.

Pictured: NECHAMA's response team and volunteers in the 9th ward.